Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-11-19
Family Life in Switzerland.
Cofnhill Magazine.

stock companies, managed by the
parents for the common benefit. 1t
is known that when both parents die
the estate will be divided INTO equal
portions among the children, boys
and girls sharing alike. All money,
therefore, which is drawn from the
estate by sons or daughters for extra
ordinary purposes is debited against
them. Ifa boy, for instance, elects
to be a doctor, he anticipates his share
in the eventual division. All labor
expended by them on the estate is
reckoned to their credit. If a boy
stays at home and works like a farm
servant, he acquires a future claim
in proportion to service render
ed. 1t is for the interest of each
member to pay off debts upon the
property or to increase its value.
Consequently when o o goes out in
to the world, after his education has
been completed, it is expected of him
to remit a portion of his earnings to
the family fund. This stands in lieu
of work he might have done at home,
and also as a recognition of his early
rearing. The precise amount to be
thus contributed by individuals is de-
termined by feeling and instinct
more than by any fixed rule. The
system cannot have the exactitude of
u mercantile concern; yet it approx
mates to that standard. The result is
that both sons and daughters in a
Swiss family feel it their duty either
to discharge personal functions in the
home or else to send a part of their
gains yearly back to the common
stock. Not unfrequently a son gives
the father or mother all that he has
made for several years. If he has re-
ceived advances from the family es-
tate he applies his savings to the re-
payment ofthis loan. But the time
comes when he thinks himself justi-
fed in founding Il private estate.
Then he opens an account at the
bank and from that moment for
ward his expenditure is more econo-
mical, his profits sensibly increase.
So important is the principle laid
down by Aristotle that social institu-
tions depend upon the things men
own and love as their particular pos
sessions.
The relations in which Swiss peo-
pie stand to their Gemeinde (Com.
mune), and to their family, deter
mine their conduct in a very remark.
able degree. Whithersoever they &C
in the world, whatever occupation
they engage in, they never lose that
tie of interest, as we'll as of sympathy
which binds them to their birthplace
1t is there, ifthe worst comes to the
worst, that they have rights of main.
tenance. 1t is there, that when the
old folk die, they can reckon some
scrap or shred of the fields beloved II
boyhood. Consequently they only
emigrate for a season, with the objec
Of amassing capital and after run
ming adventures in all parts of Eu
rope, they most frequently marry {
woman of their own village. Thu
Swiss rarely become colonists in on,
Anglo-SaXon sense of the word. They
rarely build up large fortunes in for
eign countries. What they want II
do is to make money, and to com,
back better off than their neighbor
who stayed at home. They are mod
est in their desires, for a very moder
ate amount of wealth places them il
a superior position among their kin
dred. Such being their scheme O
conduct, they naturally prefer to tax
a home-bred girl to wife. She vii
appreciate the goods of fortune the,
have won; she will not be above tn
services demanded from a housekeep
err. She will inherit something
to be added to her husband
property. With more of last an,
comfort than they enjoyed in boy
hood, they look forward to renewin
the old round of homely joys and du
ties. This abnegation of vulgar an
billions, this piety for the past, thi
contentment with the solid things {
the world, demand our respect. Th
social institutions of the commun
and the family, as they are frame
in Switzerland, contribute largely t
the state of things l have described
We must also make allowance for tn
serse of personal dignity, inalienabl
from a Swiss burgher, who in h
own place has no superior, and VIII
is eligible to the highest political of
ces of his national government. 81
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